Of Women and Frogs, the debut novel by Bisi Adjapon will hit the bookshelves in December 2018 courtesy Farafina.
Of Women and Frogs is the coming-of-age story of Esi, a feisty half-Nigerian girl growing up in post-colonial Ghana, with occasional visits to her maternal family in Lagos. When her curiosity about her body leads to a ginger-in-the-vagina punishment from her stepmother, Esi begins to question the hypocrisy of the adults around her who place restrictions on her just because she is a girl.
“The subject of sex and gender disparity has always fascinated me,” Adjapon says. “But I didn’t want a didactic book. I wanted to entertain and touch hearts. I wanted to write the kind of book I loved to read, a book featuring a woman who is intelligent, well-educated, funny, romantic and has a healthy libido.”
Adjapon first published Of Women and Frogs as a short story in McSweeney’s Quarterly Issue 38, before the novel itself was completed.
“This is a really wonderful story. [Bisi Adjapon] writes with incredible vividness and clarity. [Her] similes and attention to all of the senses are really extraordinary,” Dave Eggers, publisher of McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, says of the forthcoming release.
Managing Editor at Farafina, Enajite Efemuaye adds, “Esi is every girl, every woman, who is torn between doing her duty and staying true to herself. We’re excited about this beautiful story of courage coming at a time when more women are standing up and speaking their truth.”
Adjapon’s writings have appeared in journals and newspapers including the Washington Times, Daily Graphic and Chicken Bones. As an International Affairs Specialist for the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service, she won the Civil Rights Award for Human Relations, and a Strategic Objective Award for her work on the Norman Borlaug Capacity Building Fellows targeting women in developing countries.
She holds degrees in French and Spanish and has worked in several embassies, taught and managed projects in Costa Rica, Mexico, South Africa and Ghana. Until recently, she was a language instructor at the Diplomatic Language School in Virginia. Currently, she divides her time between Ghana and America. When not working, she plays tennis and loves to eat chocolate.
Of Women and Frogs will be available in retail stores in Nigeria from December 1, 2018.